Teddy Bear
by HellRaiserAlchemist
Summary: It's Billy's birthday and Teddy's nowhere to be found! Teddy/Billy, fluffy, light, first YA fic. One-Shot. K for slight language.


**AN**: Young Avengers and PoT are fighting for my soul. ...Uh, first YA fic...I think I failed horribly, as I don't usually do fluff, but...hopefully it's ok. Please enjoy! C&C welcome!

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Billy looked down at his watch, his temper seething beneath his outwardly cool demeanor. 6:47 pm. Teddy was late; Billy was going to kill him on sight. Usually when they went on dates, Billy was the one running late-having parents was a pain, even if he would never say that around Teddy- and the blonde would merely give him a tight, one armed hug as the mage vented. On the occasion Teddy was late, it was only by a few minutes, and there was always a valid excuse, be it traffic or Iron Man stopping him at the gate to make sure they weren't planning some undercover Young Avenger mission. This however, was a two hour delay, without a single phone call; while this would bother anyone, it was bothering Billy more because it was his birthday and Teddy had promised to take him to the movies, out shopping, and then home, as Billy's parents hand planned a resort-theme park trip over the weekend.

None of the other Young Avengers seemed to know where the blonde was either. He'd called Eli first; being the leader, that seemed most reasonable. Eli hadn't seen Teddy since Wednesday morning and it was now Friday night. Kate had called him to wish him happy birthday, with Cassie in the background, and neither of the girls had seen him either, though Kate promised to check by the Avenger's Mansion. Tommy had sped by to drop his own birthday wishes, along with a quick, small gift exchange between the twins, before swearing up and down he hadn't seen Teddy and sped off again. At this point, Billy was seriously considering going to Vision and telling him to track his boyfriend down to exact, pin-point coordinates, which Billy would then deem his testing sight for magic made nuclear warfare.

Before he could go through with the plan, Kate ran up to him, something fuzzy in her arms, with Cassie close behind. Both looked worried beyond belief and Billy felt panic rush through his system as he jumped up, "What happened? Is Teddy ok? Oh God, did the Warden--"

"Billy, calm down." Kate managed around the panting, kneeling over with one hand on her knee, the other still curled around the fuzzy object and holding it to her body, "Teddy's fine. …We think. He--"

"You think?! Kate, my boyfriend could be seriously injured! Or _dead_! Oh God, he's dead--"

"William Kaplan!"

The mage immediately snapped his mouth shut with a throaty whimper at the tone and his full name…well, what Kate knew as his full name. It was hard to make the archer mad, and it was scary when she did get upset. She let out a sigh and held out the object in her arms. Billy stared at it, his brow twitching a bit. The entire time, she'd been holding a sandy coloured, stuffed bear. Bright blue eyes were shining up at Billy and the mage initially felt the worry and anger melting away…at least, until the bear reminded him of a certain boyfriend that was no where near him. Cassie chose that time to speak up, seeming nervous next to Kate.

"Cap said he ran out earlier this morning…had something important to do. He said if any of us came by, Teddy told him to send us to his room, there was something for you and um…we found that." She waved at the bear and produced a card from her purse, "And this."

Billy's eye twitched as he took both the bear and card. The card went in his back pocket as he looked over the bear again. It was a regular bear; the plush arms reaching out to him for a hug as though it were sitting on a shelf…well, it was cuddly enough. He scowled and hugged the bear tight, close to squeezing the stuffing out of it, "…I'm going to kill him. I swear, we see him at school, I'm going to--"

"Billy, I'm sure there's an explanation." Kate ventured warily, carefully turning and steering him down the sidewalk towards his house, "Come on, let's get you home. I'm sure he'll call by tonight."

Despite allowing himself to be pushed home, Billy spent the entire time grumbling to himself, squeezing the bear tightly on and off until he got there and near broke the door as he threw it open. His brothers started to run over, looking intent on taking the bear or teasing him about it. The quickly darted back to the living room at a glare and temporary flash of blue in the older boy's eyes. He growled and stalked into the kitchen, hoping to find something to curb his anger at and was pleased to find a quart of ice cream. Just as he was digging into it, from the carton, his mother came up behind him, giving him a scolding slap on the hand and took it, "You're going to spoil your dinner! …Speaking of, where is Teddy? Are you two ready to go?"

"I'm not going." Billy mumbled, rubbing the reddening mark on his arm. Mrs. Kaplan stared, "Not going? Billy, we've been planning this for weeks--" "Tell Teddy that." He regretted snapping as his mother gave him a firm, reprimanding glare and sank into his seat, his arms wrapping back around the sandy bear in a death hold, "Teddy never showed up for our date. You guys go, you have the tickets…if he shows up at some point and I don't kill him, we'll be there tomorrow. …Maybe. Assuming I really don't kill him and he isn't ill." Billy fell into growls and mutters and his mother sighed, sliding the ice cream back to him and kissed his tousled black hair.

"All right, Billy. Just this once. We'll call when we get there, and you be sure to call in the morning, whether you're coming or not. Please don't eat all the ice cream." She tried to tease and at least pulled a smile out of her son before walking away and the boy immediately went back to indulging himself with the sweet treat.

He did leave at least half of the carton, sighing as he pushed it back into the freezer and stalked up to his room. It was 8:15 and still no word from Teddy; his parents called about thirty minutes later, assuring him they had arrived safely and his brothers were already fast asleep, wished him happy birthday once more, gave him a small pep talk and said their 'we love you' and 'good night's before hanging up. Billy sighed and turned onto his front, suffocating himself in his pillow for a moment with the bear squished tight in his arms between his chest and the bed. He did eventually roll back onto his front as his lungs screamed for oxygen and lifted the bear up so he was staring it in the little marble eyes, "…As cute as you are…Teddy's still in Hell sent trouble…honestly, thinking you'd make it all better? God, I hate him right now. …Though you do look like him…maybe we'll get you little silver clip on earrings and call you Teddy Jr. …And…I'm talking to an inanimate object." He mumbled to himself, finally laying the little bear beside him and turned onto his side, staring at his clock forlornly. 9:00 pm…and still no Teddy. Anger was slowly turning to worry; maybe he had done something wrong and Teddy didn't want to go out with him anymore? Or worse, Teddy was cheating on him? He gave a soft whimper and reached back, feeling for his stuffed bear. He frowned as he didn't find it, then froze up at the sudden weight addition on his bed. Before he could summon a spell, a pair of firm, familiar arms wrapped around him, followed by a hurt voice, "I didn't mean to make you mad…something really did come up…do you really hate me--"

Billy yelped and darted clear across the room, near tripping over his school books as he did, "Teddy! Christ, where did you…where have you been all day?!"

The blonde had his head down and was rubbing the back of his neck. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, naked, though Billy tried hard to ignore that and keep the worried and angry glare on the blonde. When he looked up, he had an apologetic look in his eyes, one that Billy couldn't stay mad at, as he started explaining, "Kl'rt…kind of sent me a message this morning…at like, 2 am. Scared the Hell out of me, to be honest, I had no idea he could send messages that far, but…he--"

"You're leaving, aren't you? Crap, is that why you've been avoiding me all day? Teddy, it couldn't have taken that long--"

"Billy, please let me finish." The mage fell quiet, albeit reluctantly and Teddy sighed, "I'm not going anywhere. I told them no, I meant no. I'm not going anywhere without you. …He was actually trying to set that up for us, but…well, the Krees and Skrulls still aren't too happy about me not wanting to go to either of them, let alone that I won't take a wife for a legitimate heir."

"You could have called." Billy mumbled, his arms crossed and his eyes on the ground. Teddy smiled, moving to the middle of the bed and held his arms out. Billy glared softly but did eventually shuffle back over and crawled into his boyfriend's arms, snuggling against him, "…Do I want to know how you managed to turn into a stuffed bear?"

"Heh…pure luck, actually. I didn't think it would work, but…obviously, it did."

"…And why turn into a bear exactly?"

At that, Teddy merely shrugged, "Well, I got back around seven this morning…fell asleep and stayed asleep past our movie time. So I originally ran off to try and catch you and then I remembered we were supposed to go on that trip with your family…and, well…I didn't want your brothers seeing your present. So, I needed a way to hide and make sure we didn't go with them tonight. We'll just catch a ride tomorrow." Billy rolled his eyes, knowing that meant they'd be flying, then blinked and looked up at the blonde curiously

"…Teddy, you are aware you're naked and there is no way you've been hiding a present on yourself all day as a stuffed bear."

"Yeah. I hid it in my bag. I was going to give it to you when we got to the hotel…then I remembered we were sharing a room with the twins. So…Kl'rt calling kind of helped me out. Can I go get it?" He had a sparkle in his eyes that Billy couldn't say no to, even if he didn't want to be dislodged from his spot in the blonde's lap. He rolled his eyes, gently smacking Teddy on the arm and slid out of his lap.

"Making me move…and at least put your boxers on, Teddy. You know how Tommy is."

"…I really have to wonder when he sleeps." Teddy mumbled, sliding off the bed and padding over to where he'd stashed his duffle bag the day before. He did at least pull on a pair of boxers before he began rummaging through the bag and eventually slid back onto the bed, pulling Billy back into his lap. He had two boxes in his hand, both neatly wrapped, and gently placed them in Billy's waiting hands.

On the inside, Billy felt like a kid opening their first present and opened the bigger box first at Teddy's insistence. His face lit up exceptionally; a memorial jewelry box, one a picture could be slid into the cover. In the cover were four little pictures; the Scarlet Witch, the Kaplan family, one of him, and one of him and Teddy. He hugged his boyfriend tight, "I thought you hated computers? And where did you get the picture of Scarlet Witch? It's perfect."

"I do hate computers." Teddy mumbled into his neck, though he was grinning sheepishly, "I had Vision pull it up…and he helped me out with it."

"…And didn't tell Cassie?"

"I told him I would reprogram him my way if he did." Teddy shrugged, innocently and Billy couldn't help laughing. Teddy laughed too, shaking his head, "Kidding; I explained the whole thing to him and he promised not to tell. So, no disaster thing like with Kate and her bow."

"I don't think anything could top this, this is beautiful…." Billy muttered, turning so his back was against Teddy's chest once more and started running his hands over the fine crafted box, tracing the Celtic designs around it. He opened it, smiling wider. Half of it was for ring storage, the other side for bracelets and necklaces, where there was a thin, sterling silver chain.

Teddy grinned, hugging him tight again and nuzzling at his neck, "I hope you're wrong…but, on the bright side, you can't complain about losing your bracelets anymore." He teased, then whined softly, like a little kid and put on his best cute voice, "Open the other one now. …I really hope you like." He mumbled, calming down from the kid voice for the last bit.

Billy blinked, then smiled and turned his focus to the smaller box. He unwrapped it carefully, quirking his brow a bit at the velvet black box, "Teddy, you know I don't wear rings or earrings."

"I know…open it." Teddy mumbled, nudging him lightly.

The mage sighed softly but did as requested. Immediately his jaw dropped open and his eyes widened exceptionally. Inside was a silver ring with a sapphire set in the middle. Billy took it out carefully, blinking as he felt on the inside and turned the ring to look it over. There was an inscription set in it…in Skrull. He frowned softly, but Teddy spoke up before he could think to ask or turn.

"You have no idea how long it took me to convince the jeweler to script that. I had to tell him I had a WoW and D&D geek for a boyfriend." He teased and then fell quiet for a few minutes before continuing, "Last time Kl'rt contacted us, I asked him how to say a few things…and then I asked Xavin how to write them." He smiled softly, nuzzling into Billy's shoulder and neck, hugging him tighter, "It says 'For all the times you've been there, all the times we've been through.' And on the top side…it says 'I love you' all the way around. I know you don't wear rings but…at least put it on the chain and wear it as a necklace?"

Billy kept quiet for a moment, then slowly snapped the box shut. Before Teddy could ask, the smaller had turned, wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. He smiled softly, shaking his head a bit, "Teddy…you're a dork." He giggled a bit, kissed his boyfriend's flushed cheeks and waved his hand in the general direction of his light switch to turn it off with a small spell before tugging the blonde down, "Go to sleep…the brats can tease all they want tomorrow." He smiled, curling into Teddy's chest happily, "I'll wear it. I'll find something else to put on the chain."

"So...you aren't mad about the bear?" Teddy asked hopefully. Billy laughed.

"Why settle for a stuffed bear when I have a life-sized, alien shapeshifting teddy bear right here?"

Teddy smiled softly, pressing a fond kiss to his boyfriend's head as he settled in for the night, "Fair enough...and happy birthday, Billy."

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....I feel so horrible posting this, but...argh, I don't even have an excuse. Will eventually update Tennis no Oujisama fics. I swear, I'm not ignoring them it's just...really hard for me to write without new inspiration. ...Though the new manga is doing it for me. if you haven't checked it out yet, , new prince of tennis. have fun.

Characters (C) Marvel Comics


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